American Civil Religion

What Americans Hold Sacred

Peter Gardella

Comprehensive compilation of all the basic texts (including songs), monuments, objects, and symbols of American civil religion

American Civil Religion

What Americans Hold Sacred

Peter Gardella

Description

The United States has never had an officially established church. Since the time of the first British colonists, it has instead developed a strong civil religion that melds national symbols to symbols of God. In a deft exploration of American civil religious symbols ranging from the Liberty Bell and Vietnam Memorial to Mount Rushmore and Disney World, Peter Gardella explains how the places, objects, and symbols that Americans hold sacred came into being and how they have changed over time. In addition to examining revered historical sites and structures, he analyzes such sacred texts as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, the Kennedy Inaugural, and the speeches of Martin Luther King, and shows how five patriotic songs—''The Star-Spangled Banner,'' ''The Battle Hymn of the Republic'' ''America the Beautiful,'' ''God Bless America,'' and ''This Land Is Your Land''—have been elevated into hymns.

Arguing that certain values—personal freedom, political democracy, world peace, and cultural tolerance—have held American civil religion together, this book chronicles the numerous forms those values have taken, from Jamestown and Plymouth to the September 11, 2001, Memorial in New York.

American Civil Religion

What Americans Hold Sacred

Peter Gardella

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1. What Is American Civil Religion? 2. America: The Name, the Concept, and the Word 3. Jamestown and Its Anniversaries 4. The Mayflower Compact 5. Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims and the Indians 6. City on a Hill: From Jesus to Winthrop, Kennedy, and Reagan 7. The Freedom Trail and Boston Common 8. The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the Slave Quarters 9. The Flag 10. The Declaration of Independence 11. The Great Seal and the Dollar Bill 12. The Constitution 13. Washington, D.C.: The City, the Capitol, and the White House 14. The Star-Spangled Banner 15. The Washington Monument 16. The Battle Hymn of the Republic 17. Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address 18. Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address 19. Arlington National Cemetery 20. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island 21. America the Beautiful 22. The Lincoln Memorial 23. Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills 24. God Bless America 25. This Land Is Your Land 26. The Four Freedoms 27. Iwo Jima: The Picture, the Monuments, and the Battle 28. Disney Parks 29. The Kennedy Inaugural 30. King's Speeches: The Mall (1963) and Memphis (1968) 31. Vietnam Veterans' Memorial 32. Transforming the National Mall 33. Ground Zero, Martyrdom, and Empire 34. Conflict, Consensus, and the Future Index

American Civil Religion

What Americans Hold Sacred

Peter Gardella

Author Information

Peter Gardella, Professor of World Religions, Manhattanville College

Peter Gardella is Professor of World Religions at Manhattanville College.

American Civil Religion

What Americans Hold Sacred

Peter Gardella

Reviews and Awards

"Deeply significant...a book such as Gardella's can do much to help orient Americans to their stated commitments to equality, peace, and cultural tolerance. Thus, Gardella's American Civil Religion promises to make a unique and valuable contribution to Americans' understanding of themselves and commitment to greater faithfulness to their most cherished ideals." - S-USIH

"Gardella has a gift for linking many of the civil icons with structural counterparts in religion." - Anglican Theological Review

"Each chapter provides illuminating discussions of history and current status as well as Gardella's interpretation of the symbolism/sacred meaning of each topic...Recommended." - CHOICE

"In this engaging work, Peter Gardella revives the concept of civil religion and gives it new life through a detailed tour of its specifics. Drawing on a variety of materials-documents, music, monuments, places, symbols-he takes materials with which we are all familiar and puts them in a theoretical context that is at once sophisticated and accessible." - Peter W. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and American Studies (Emeritus), Miami University

American Civil Religion

What Americans Hold Sacred

Peter Gardella

From Our Blog

By Peter Gardella Unlike the 4th of July with its fireworks or Thanksgiving with its turkeys, Memorial Day has no special object. But the new 9/11 Museum near the World Trade Center in New York has thousands of objects. Some complain that its objects are for sale, in a gift shop and because of the admission fee.

The two most controversial, apparently contradictory Super Bowl ads'Bob Dylan's protectionist, 'American Import' Chrysler ad and Coca-Cola's multilingual rendition of 'America the Beautiful''show the breadth of American civil religion. As religion scholars have long observed, it belongs to the nature of religious language to self-destruct.